Excellent book tells story of Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe, launched the Cold War

It may be hard to imagine someone hurrying home to curl up with a work of political history, but Benn Steil’s fascinating new book, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War (Simon & Schuster, 404 pp., ★★★★ out of four), could change that.

Steil, author of the acclaimed The Battle of Bretton Woods, has given us a thoroughly researched and well-written account of the crucial years of 1947-49 and formation of the Marshall Plan. That's the American initiative that rebuilt Europe and placed a geopolitical check on Soviet influence after World War II.

Steil is a senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and his expertise energizes his thoughtful and meticulous writing style. A compelling cast of historical figures moves easily through a timeline of events and decisions that revitalized the continent and widened the bitter division between the U.S. and Soviet Russia.

That division still affects us today, as recent events show.

Many Americans may think of the Marshall Plan, named after Gen. George C. Marshall, secretary of state under President Harry S. Truman, simply as humanitarian aid to Europeans. It was far more complex than that.

George C. Marshall in 1955.(Photo: Associated Press)

Truman let trusted subordinates craft the idea and, aware of his contentious relationship with opposition Republicans, refused to have it named after himself.

“Anything going up (to Capitol Hill) bearing my name will quiver a couple of times, turn belly up and die,” the Democratic president told an aide. “I’ve decided to give the whole thing to General Marshall. The worst Republican on the Hill can vote for it if we name it after the General.”

Though the U.S. and the Soviet Union were allies during the war, the two nations did not trust one another. By the war’s end, the Soviets made it clear they wanted to increase their domination across Europe, an expansion the U.S. and its European allies could not allow.

The Soviets suffered staggering losses during the war — “for every American who would die in the war, 13 Germans and 70 Russians would perish,” Steil notes — and it wanted vast reparations from Germany, to the point of virtually dismantling Germany’s economy.

U.S. officials, however, remembered how the economic hardship imposed on Germany after World War I led to unrest and helped Hitler come to power. They also believed that crippling German productivity would hobble Europe’s return to prosperity. Failing economies could also lead to greater communist involvement in western governments and increase Soviet meddling in Europe.

Author Benn Steil.(Photo: Dan Pollard)

The U.S. emerged as the preeminent superpower after the war, but did not want a military confrontation with the Soviets. Instead, it decided to use its economic power to reconstruct Europe into a peaceful, democratic, financially healthy friend.

The plan evolved with negotiations across Washington and was introduced by Marshall in a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. It did not make much of an initial impact in the U.S., but European nations, clamoring for political change, reacted with enthusiasm.

The result was a diplomatic balancing act in which the Truman administration got cooperation from Republican opponents, Britain, France and other allies, and promoted the plan to the American public. At the same time, it dealt with the Soviet Union, which sought to undermine the project for its own gain.

Though not perfect in its execution, the Marshall Plan is regarded as successful statesmanship because America sought to create strong economic partners and allies instead of simply imposing its will across Europe.

Most books on economic politics may be written for economists and other specialists. The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, however, will appeal to history buffs in general and those seeking a definitive record of America’s first diplomatic confrontation with Soviet Russia in particular.